“The Gathering 2013”

Call to Cork GAA members inviting them to become involved in “The Gathering” by volunteering to act as a Facilitator at a Community Information Meeting.

A Cháirde,

Many of you may have heard about The Gathering 2013 which originated at the first Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh in 2009. The idea was developed as a response to the challenge of getting Ireland growing again.

It is all happening in 2013 therefore plans are now underway to work with communities to mobilise and drive The Gathering in Cork to plan and co-ordinate community based activity and communicate with local people.

The Gathering is about the people of Ireland throwing open their arms and inviting anyone with a connection to Ireland to come and visit in 2013. It’s about anyone who has Irish blood, a link to Ireland, or even just a love of our country to join us for a series of events throughout 2013 being organised by the people of Ireland in their honour.

It is hoped that individual families, communities, sports clubs, colleges, businesses etc will host special events to highlight what is unique about their community and Ireland as a whole, and of course, the GAA is key to this with its links to every community in Ireland.

A Steering Group for the Cork Gathering has been set up which is jointly chaired by Martin Riordan, Manager of Cork County Council and by Tim Lucey, Manager of Cork City Council. A number of outside agencies/organisations are represented on this Steering Committee (UCC, Cork Airport, Failte Ireland, Development Companies, Chamber of Commerce, ICA, to name but a few) and the Árd-Stiúrthóir has nominated all County PROs to represent the GAA on their county's Steerping Group.

Each Steering Group must organise Community Meetings in their area to seek ideas from the citizens of the area in relation to The Gathering and what events could be expanded to have a Gathering Team or what new events could be organised. At these Community Meetings, people attending are broken up into groups of 10 with a Facilitator assigned to each group to collate the ideas being put forward by the group and to ensure everyone’s idea is listened to by the Group.

The National Project Team put in place for The Gathering will be assigning a Professional Facilitator for each Community Meeting. However as it is expected, based on Community Meetings held to date around the Country, where between 200 & 300 people have attended some of these Meetings, 20 – 30 people need to be identified to work as a Facilitator on a voluntary basis at each meeting.

Each of the Organisations involved in The Gathering Steering Group for Cork has agreed to put forward a list of Facilitators from their Organisation /people they know who may be able to undertake this role. Professional training will be provided in advance of each Community Meeting to all Facilitators. It will be a matter for each Facilitator to decide which of the Community Meetings they are prepared to attend, many may only be prepared or able to attend one and this is fine.

So the question is: would you like to Volunteer as a Facilitator for the Community Meeting in your area?

In Cork there are four Community Meetings planned as follows:_

Monday 17th September – Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery

Wednesday 19th September – Midleton Park Hotel in Midleton

Monday 24th September – Cork City Hall, Cork City

Wednesday 26th September – Springfort Hall outside Mallow

Acting as a Facilitator will involve attending training from 3-5pm at the location of the Community Meeting and then acting as a Facilitator at the meeting which will be held on the same evening from 7 – 9pm. As stated above, the training will be provided by a Professional Facilitator assigned from the National Project Team

I am now seeking representatives of the GAA clubs in Cork who would be interested in becoming involved in this project and acting as a Facilitator for the meetings. Working as a Facilitator will, similar to all other organisations, have to be done on a voluntary basis and apart from attending the Facilitator training from 3-5pm which will be during working hours, any time worked after this will be on a voluntary basis. Similarly travel expenses cannot be paid to Facilitators for attendance at the Community Meetings as it is all on a voluntary basis.

This is your opportunity to become involved in your local area and be part of getting Ireland growing again.

If you are interested in acting as a facilitator, please send me your name, contact number and the meeting/s you are available to attend.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who would be interested in becoming involved. If you are not interested, there is no need to reply to this email.